Indian cricketer Arshdeep Singh, who hasn’t posted anything on his social media handles since Sunday’s defeat to Pakistan, told his parents that he is ‘laughing’ seeing the tweets and messages.
Cricketer Arshdeep Singh incurred the wrath of social media users mainly by right-wing handles after he dropped a simple catch in the closing stages of a tense India-Pakistan match on Sunday.
“Spoke to Arshdeep before boarding. His exact words were, ‘I am laughing at all these tweets and messages. I am only going to take positives from it. This incident has only given me more confidence,” Arshdeep’s father Darshan, who is currently the chief of security in a private company, told The Indian Express after landing in Chandigarh on Monday evening.
Arshdeep’s father Darshan and mother Baljeet were at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, watching India take on Pakistan.
Arshdeep’s mother revealed that the entire Indian team is indeed backing the youngster. Her comments come after Virat Kohli had mentioned in the post-match press conference that the team environment is such that Arshdeep won’t feel left out after a difficult day on the field.
“Arshdeep told us that the whole Indian team is supporting him,” his mother said.
When asked about the treatment their son received, Arshdeep’s father answered: “As a parent, it feels really bad. He is only 23. I don’t want to say much about trolls. You can’t shut everyone’s mouth. Without fans, there is no game. There are some who stand by you no matter what and others who can’t digest a single loss. But at the end of the day, only one team can win.”
Several former India players and political leaders rallied in Arshdeep’s support.
Arshdeep faced a barrage of hate campaigns on social media with an unidentified user even editing the player’s Wikipedia page to add references to “Khalistan”.
On Monday, the Ministry of Electronics and IT summoned executives of the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, seeking an explanation on how the page of the cricketer was edited to add inflammatory content.
